BrilliantDigital

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Spyware: Any product that employs a user's Internet connection in the background without their knowledge or explicit permission, and gathers/transmits info on the user, their machine, or their behavior.

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Distribution

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The b3d Projector was first released in 1997 and was distributed to users as they downloaded the Kazaa Media Desktop from Q3 2001. In late 2002 the b3d Projector became an opt-in component of Kazaa. As of February, 2003 the b3d Projector is no longer being distributed through Kazaa as BDE is focusing its efforts on its new secure peer to peer network, Altnet. Altnet is a subsidiary of BDE. Altnet's flagship product is called TopSearch, a distributed search index, which functions much like popular sponsored search programs such as Google and Yahoo Search. This technology enables artists and content owners to promote and sell their works in a secure and convenient way to users of the Kazaa Media Desktop and other applications and web sites. Users can access Altnet files by clicking on gold icon files in the Kazaa Media Desktop search results. As of May 2003 these Altnet files are distributed using the FastTrack application and protocol and can be easily purchased using Altnet's payment gateway. Downloadable from Brilliant's own site.

Previously bundled with Altnet SecureInstall. Pursuant to an agreement with Sharman Networks, SecureInstall, along with the Digital Projector, was downloaded as part of KaZaA Media Desktop, which has consistently been averaging in excess of two million downloads per week since we began bundling our software in the fall, 2001. The Installer technology connected to file servers, P2P networks and ad servers, via "connectors", for the purpose of distributing files across the network. These "connectors" consisted of small amounts of JavaScript code plus small, encrypted install scripts used by the Installer. These components helped facilitate the delivery of files - ad banners, music files, documents, software files, etc. - across the network. Apart from facilitating Altnet SecureInstall connectivity, the Installer was a full-fledged software installation system, with key features including file compression, file patching and file encryption. The file compression reduced download sizes, the file patching allowed software updates to be made available as 'patches' rather than full downloads, and file encryption provided protection from tampering for files on the network, even if they were on the hard drives of thousands of user's PCs connected to a P2P network.

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Operation

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Risks

Privacy Issues:

None known. The b3d Projector does not track URLs visited or any other user behavior. BDE collects aggregated statistics that show a variety of anonymous activities, including:

1. When a Brilliant Banner ad appears, JavaScript code posts an "impression stat" to BDE's web server, indicating that an ad was shown.
2. This stat is added to an accumulated total for that day. The stat is stored only in aggregated form. No other information about the user is posted, logged or kept.
3. If the user clicks on the ad then BDE's JavaScript posts a "clicked" stat to their web server. Again, this stat is added to an accumulated total for that day, and the stat is stored only in aggregated form. No other information about the user is posted, logged or kept.
4. Stores a cookie on the user's machine so BDE cam determine if the user is seeing the ad for the first time or has seen it before. All that's ever sent back to the BDE server is "this stat is from someone who has never seen this ad before" vs. "this stat is from someone who has seen this ad before."
5. BDE's web server does not collect log files on images, HTML pages or anything else. That's actually fairly unusual - most web servers generate log files which store the user's IP address, making it possible to reconstruct the user's navigation by analyzing the files that they loaded. BDE turns off server logging so that they don't collect even this information.

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Detection and Removal

Automatic Removal:

PestPatrol detects this.

PestPatrol removes this.

Manual Removal:

Since the software is resistant to removal while the program is actively running please try the following steps.

1. Open your "Control Panel" then to "Add/Remove Programs" then initiate the program removal process. This will not remove the program components but will allow PestPatrol or any other removal program the opportunity to remove the Digital Brilliance components from your computer.
2. Once the Digital Brilliance files have been identified, run PestPatrol. Then reboot your computer, and do a final scan with PestPatrol.

If you have had Digital Brilliance installed on your computer for any length of time then you are bound to have dated program components as the software self updates. Therefore, you will need to verify that all program folders have been deleted from your computer.

You will want to delete the directory 'BDE' inside your Windows directory, and the files 'bdeinstall.exe', 'bdeinsta2.dll', 'bdefdi.dll', 'bdedata2.dll', 'bdedownloader.dll', 'bdeverify.dll', 'bdesecureinstall.exe' and 'bdesecureinstall.cab' inside your System directory (which is 'WINDOWS\SYSTEM' under Windows 95/98/Me, and 'WINNT\System32' under Windows NT/2000/XP).

Next, run regedit and remove the 'b3dUpdate' value from key 'Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\' in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. You can also remove 'Software\ZUpdate', and in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT the keys: 'b3d', 'b3ds', 's3d_auto_file', 'b3dini_auto_file', 'BDEPLAYER.BDEPlayerCtrl[.1]', 'BDESmartInstaller.BDESmartInstallerCtrl[.1]', '.b3dini'.

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